Drops of Love
by xoxSerenityxox
Summary: Drabbles/One-shots centered around Usagi and different male Sailor Moon characters. Maybe a little lime here and there.
1. Heat

The apartment was cool, almost cold considering the thick summer heat outside.

Two cups rested in the sink, remnants of iced tea still kissing the sides of the glass.

The central air conditioning created a low hum throughout the almost empty home.

Papers were strewn across a desk in sitting area, and a red guitar leaned up against the couch dangerously leaning to the left.

A giggle cut through the silence.

"You didn't really? Did you?"

Down the hall on the last room to the left the two sat in his bed, her shoes off in the corner and her hands clutching her stomach as tears pearled in her eyes.

The man leaned over her still speaking causing her to gasp for breath, "What else could I do? I showed her the hotdog autographed in ketchup."

She broke into another fit of laughter flopping backwards on the pillow. He fell beside her and propped his head on one arm to watch her.

"You're –gasp- lying."

He picked up her delicate hand and held in his larger one, "Not once have I ever lied to you, I don't think I would suddenly start now."

She laughed and sat up, her hand slipping out of his in the process. "Why is it so cold in here. I think I can see my breath!" She rubbed her hands together and smiled at him, "Maybe we should have had cocoa, ne?"

He slipped off his thin red sweater that was made of light cotton. "Wear this."

"Where are you going?"

As soon as he handed her the sweater he had got up and reached back and grabbed her wrist, the angle made sure she could see his lean muscles in his back through the tight wife beater, "Follow me."

Her pink polka dotted ankle socks followed his bare feet out of the room.

He walked to the living room and placed a blank disk in the CD player. "This a new song I've been working on, its called Heat. I want you to listen to it."

"Ayy you know every time you open your mouth it's beautiful."

"But listen to it."

He put one hand at the small of her back and started to sway, "It's different ne? I decided to add some flamenco. Usa-chan, do like it?"

He pulled her close and dipped, watching the blush rise in her cheek as their bodies drew closer.

The beat got louder as he tapped to the tune, "Do you like it?"

"Where did you learn to dance like this?"

He spun her around in a circle, "After Galaxia we had time to ourselves I traveled to Spain and saw people dancing like this in Barcelona."

"You went by yourself?"

"Si."

"Didn't you get lonely?"

"No."

"…Because you found someone there?" The song ended with a final stomp of the foot from the dance, and he lifted her on the counter, standing between her legs.

His red sweater came down to the middle of her, hiding her little pastel pink short, and making her creamy skin seem that much paler.

He lifted her chin so she was looking at him, "And if I did?"

Her phone rang in her tan satchel in the couch. She tried to slip of but his body blocked her, "That must be Darien…"

"And if I did?"

She twisted her head out of his hands, "That would be fine."

"I've never lied to you, are you lying to me?"

He laced his arms around her butt and pulled them even closer together so their pelvises touched.

She looked down biting her lower lip, "Maybe."

He perked up, leaning closer. "Maybe?"

She looked up at him, lessening the distance between them. "Yes."

He pushed his lips against hers, "Fuck yes."

His hand traveled to her knees and smoothed up her thighs intent on taking off the sweater when three sharp knocks hit the door, and as Seiya turned towards it Serena swung her leg over and walked into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of cold water.

He muttered curses to himself as he took a second to look to the peephole before unlocking the door. "Yaten."

His smaller framed brother of sorts, strode into the room, whipping of his silver shades and fanning himself with his other hands. "It is me or is it hotter in here than outside?"

He walked into the kitchen and put his hand over hers as she tried to open the refrigerator, casually slinging an arm around her small waist, "No…It's you."

-END

**Even though it's getting colder outside I still wanted to see a summer-centered story. Do you like this pairing? Want to see others? Leave a review and I'll do more! Serena x ?. Please stop by my other story and leave a review to "A Tale of Two". Thanks so much for reading I hope you enjoyed it!**

**xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxx ooxoxxoxoxoxo**

**xoxSerenityxox**


	2. Diamonds are Forever

The light of one dark candle cast the entire room with into orange shadows. Everything from the walls to the silverware which were varying opacities of crystal white had been changes to soft hues of faked warmth.

The candle's base was made of a thick goopy black substance that had cooled into an oblong shape. When heat of the flame moved though the wick and kissed it wouldn't melt but only evaporate into a thin gray smoke and then completely disappear without any odor.

The two sat in the middle of the stark room. A small circle table with a thick, white cloth covering it was the only furniture. On the table two napkins were delicately folded into roses on opposite left corners of the table. Short wide cups were filled with clear liquid and place just to the left of the napkins.

The table was completely symmetrical across the center where the candle lay; the only difference was one knife missing from the other plate.

Separate from the table a small stand contained a dark bottle of wine which had been poured into the glasses.

The pair sat in this chairs with square backs with cold gems welded to the arms. Her chair had soft cushion laced to the back and on the seat but they looked odd and out of place.

There were no windows but the single candle's glow reflected onto the shining white walls and somehow was just enough to lighten the entire room.

He was the first to take a sip from his wine, taking a moment to savor the taste before letting his eye drink up her body.

Her dress showed orange in the light of the candle but was strapless and had a tight fitting bodice that showed off her ample chest. A diamond necklace he had given her for her most recent birthday fell between her cleavage and twinkled in the light. The skirt was long and flowing and was comprised of hundreds of lightweight translucent material so she had looked like she floated as she was walked to her chair by the servants. He could see the outline of her long, toned legs as he moved the chair behind her so she could sit down.

Her hair had grown an almost silvery blonde and was piled into their usual neat buns with ribbons woven into it an the rest of her hair trailing down the barred back of the chain and onto the floor. On top of her head lay a small tiara with the same hard silver metal of the chair and with small jewels forming a crescent moon at the top.

"Are you happy?" He set the dark wine glass on the table again and rested his hand across the boundary the candle made to the other side of the table.

She gave him no response and stared blankly at the other side of the room; she had already unfolded the napkin onto her lap and placed her hands neatly folded on top of it.

"I gave you a fork to eat. I know you hate when I feed you. As long as you promise me not to injure yourself with it, it will be here tomorrow as well."

She took the fork into her small hands and examined it, the last time she had a fork was a short while after she had first arrived, and she didn't even know how long ago it had been now.

She placed it back on the table. The tears wouldn't even well up in her eyes, there were none left.

He took a small sip of the wine and cradled it to between his index and middle finger, as he slightly turned his wrist she watched the drink slide to each edge of the glass, back and forth, and back and forth again, but she knew it would never spill. Even the flecks of dark crystal stayed suspended at the very middle of the wine, never rising to the top, but never sinking.

"You know the rules."

She used the sides of the fork to cut the slab of meat on the plate, it was almost raw and barely seasoned as usual but she had gotten used to the taste. The blunt side of the fork couldn't get through so she only succeeded in leaving the imprint of her work worn onto it.

He smiled, and stood looming over her. She could see the candle shining so closely to his coat but it wouldn't burn him, it was some sort of twisted hallucination that made her think it was anything like the candlelight of Earth.

He used the blade to easily cut the meat into thick chunks and then sat down to his empty plate. She had never actually seen him eat, only drink the wine.

She used her fork and pierced through the browned outside to the purplish inner parts of the meat, he had cut the pieces too big. As she lifted it to her mouth she could see him leaning in and the light cast his face into a disfigured shadow.

She stopped breathing through her nose so the taste wouldn't affect her, but it always did. The juices were almost black and dribbled out of her pursed pink lips.

He grinned and leaned over to move a piece of falling hair from her eyes. She stood perfectly still and when he retreated to his area, reached for the napkin, more of the grotesque liquid spilling from her mouth and staining her lips.

He held her hand down and his palm hit the coil of thin metal that was intricately wrapped around her ring finger. "You know the rules. Not one stain. On anything."

He leaned forward and kissed her sucking her bottom lip and the juice that had found it way there; his tongue entered his mouth for a moment and then quickly departed as he sat back down. His breathing had quickened a little and he grinned at her from his seat his eyes then cast downward as he were ashy elementary school boy setting eyes on his crush.

She stopped staring at the wine and looked at the fluid that had transferred over to his mouth; the light glimmered and showed the streaks of it on his teeth. It looked like blood.

"Ah-"

He stared. It was the first time she had made a sound since the very beginning. She used to speak all the time, she wailed, screamed, reasoned, even begged, and then one day she said his name and never spoke again.

He had called every doctor in the kingdom, and they all told him the same thing, she would talk when she wanted to. But she never did.

Never made a sound.

Never even looked him in the eyes.

"Speak to me my darling."

She just stared at the blood on his teeth; she moved forward reaching out to him. He grabbed her smaller hand with his cold ones.

"What do need? You know I would get it for you."

She slipped her hands out from his and put one knee on the table spilling her own glass of wine onto her dress, causing the fabric to stick to her thighs.

"I-ah"

"You…" He looked at her eyebrows furrowed in thought, her humanity swimming back into her cold blue orbs. She was coming back to her senses; finally things might turn around for them.

The red marred his pale face, the white suit he wore, the white room, the white plates.

It stained his mouth, it looked like he was some sort of cannibal, eating her alive.

She launched herself at him and he caught her but it sent both of them to the ground, and the candle rolling to the floor.

She could here the guards coming in and paused before she moved as she could feel his manhood awakening from underneath the thin fabric of her dress.

It was darker with the candle having rolled off somewhere but it still glowed maybe even shining brighter.

She looked into his lust-lidded eyes and plunged the fork home until all three of the prongs were buried in his flesh and she pushed deeper still, until it was only her grip on the fork that stopped her from going further.

A man pulled her off of him and she still stared at him, this time with the glittering fork sticking out of his chest.

His blood coated her hands and yet to him made her look even more innocently beautiful.

His brother propped him up into an almost sitting position, and she could see him pulling the fork out of his chest and dark fibers knitting the wound back together.

He stood with blood stains over his heart and reached for his wine that had somehow been saved on the very edge of the table completely unharmed.

Two female guards came in and carried her by her arms. She didn't struggle, but simply went limp, so they had to drag her, her eyes glued to the wound that healed before her very eyes.

"Don't worry." He turned from his brother to her, "I'll see you tomorrow for dinner."

"Prepare a bath for the Queen."

"Go into the spring room to bathe her. I'll join her shortly."

He took the fork on the ground stained with his blood and took a napkin to wipe it clean.

He bent to kiss her forehead and she gave no notice of him. He smiled softly to gazing into her blank gaze. There had been something there in her tonight, even when she flung herself across the table she had still looked like she was an angel. Her pink lips slightly open, her hand reaching towards him, it was all like a dream.

"We'll try again tomorrow Serenity."

-Chapter End-

**In case you don't know by now, that was Prince Diamond. This one was a lot darker than my other chapter ne? Do you want to see a different pairing? Please leave a REVIEW and let me know otherwise I'll just keep going on my preferences. . **

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxoxoxox

xoxSerenityxox


	3. Like No One is Watching

"Ok from now on no more detention!" She nodded to herself at her own declaration. "But that's what I said last week…"

She straightened out her hunched back, lifted her chin, and tightened her grip on her school bag. It was Friday on a fresh Spring day but while her friends were off at the arcade or something she was off to schlump home and do the extra practice sheets her Math teacher had assigned her. She balled up her fist and thumped herself in the head a few times, "Stupid Math, its too hard!"

She paused, it had been a long time since she hadn't walked home with her group of friends, they always had clubs and could stay with her. Lita with cooking, Amyin her extra biotech classes, Mina and volleyball, and Raye didn't even go to there school but she would still come over sometimes. She could just cut around the parking lot and take the back road home, it would be even lonelier to go and take the long way home.

She did an abrupt three sixty and marched towards the back of the school her back towards the setting sun. What right did the teacher have keeping them this late? It was almost dark!

As she crossed from the pavement, to the grass, to the asphalt of the parking lot she heard a haunting tune.

As late as it was there were only a few parked cars that were placed in discarded corners of the area, the place was empty.

She scanned the surrounding area and then looked up behind her at the roof to see a figure standing on the edge, twirlin , playing the flute.

"Sir, please stop you'll get hurt!" The sun only cast his face into a dark shadow and he stood to the very edge daring her, beckoning her for a further action.

"Please. Don't hurt yourself! If you want me to leave I'll go but stop doing such dangerous things! You should get down from there!"

The figure stopped, though the haunting melody played on, and suddenly flipped of the roof.

Serena's hands fell to her mouth, he would die.

But instead he landed perfectly fine on the black ground in front of her hand still placed in playing position. It was beautiful but definitely not human.

"Alan?"

"Your wish is my command, Princess."

She gasped, "Princess?"

"Well, you're like a princess to me."

A deep blush rose from her neck to her temple. "You always flatter me too much…", She spoke half into her shoulder because she had turned so far away from him, too nervous to see his face.

"I take it you had detention?"

"Yes…people say I've been there longer than the gum under Mr. Tayoshi's desk." She laughed softly to herself.

His eyes softened. "That's not nice for people to say. Who said that?"

She waved her hand in front of him, "Nobody, everybody, it was so long ago even I don't remember but its true. Math, Science, I don't study enough, don't do my homework. I'm even failing dance I'm so clumsy."

"Clumsy? But you're the most graceful person I know."

"Alan. You don't have to lie to me to make me feel better. I know it true, everyone says it and I do fall, all the time, really."

He stepped back and placed the flute at his mouth, "Dance."

She laughed, scratching the back of her head, "I can't, it's getting late and I hate when people watch me I get nervous, I can't move, and then-well-you know I fall."

He closed his eyes, "No one is here. Dance." He played the same melody again just softer, slower.

She just stood there watching him to see if he was being serious and took two loud steps back seeing if he would peek. She turned and ran in place but his eyes didn't even flutter, he just continued to play.

"Well I guess…if no one is watching."

She circled him in long awaked steps before she closed her eyes and listened to the music.

_Its almost like a song they would play in the Silver Millenium_

She could see herself waltzing, turning, and laughing in the long flowing dress that was her favorite to wear to balls. He feet finally coordinated with the memory and she rose on tippy toe spun leapt, and turned, caught in the vision of her old life.

Alan played louder, picking up the pace of the music, and she continued dancing around him so fast her hair created one seemed to be one continuous golden loop.

As she bounded into the air once again for one long note she landed awkwardly and fell bracing herself with her palms and knees.

"Ouch."

The music suddenly stopped, and Alan dropped the flute to rush to her. "What happened?"

"I'm clumsy, I just tripped."

"Who says?"

"I say. I just tripped, just now."

He smiled softly at her, "Who says your clumsy?"

"Everyone. I do. Its true."

She brushed off the bits of gravel in her hands and winced when she stood on skinned knees.

"Let me help you."

"Its ok Allen. You don't need to help. I'm fine, really, so don't look at me with such sad eyes. Please. It makes me sad." She turned to look up at the sky which was turning a shades of violets and pinks. "Its late anyway I have to go home, my Mom's probably worried and my phone is dead."

"But your not clumsy you dance like an angel, if you would only-"

"I thought you said you weren't looking?" She let out a heavy sigh picked up her bag and limped off, "See you."

"Serena I-"

He what? He didn't know what to say, Ann was never so…delicate. She ran his fingers through his light brown hair, frustrated. He turned to pick up his flute, his instrument that had until very recently never touched the ground. He heard steps behind him but before he turned around he felt her finger tapping him out of the breath.

She bowed quickly, her breath a little uneven from the run.

"I forgot to say thank you. So thank you." She suddenly turned and ran of towards her house, slowing down so she could cup her hands around her mouth and yell: "We should do this again next time I have detention, OK?"

He smiled waving to her. "Next time"

-Chapter End-

**Thanks so much for the reviews, visitors, and favorites in my last chapter. I thought Allen and Serena really didn't get much of a chance with his whole alien thing and what not so I decided to give them a little time. Tell me what you thought! Read and Review.**


	4. Down: 32

"Ten letters. A defining moment. An intersection."

He jumped a little. "Hm?"

The two were sitting on his favorite couch. He sat with one of his previous research papers with one hand and a red pen in the other. His girlfriend of about two years was positioned uncomfortably half his lap, half on cushion as she leaned on the other arm of the one person couch and used a sparkly pink pen to fill in the crossword of the Sunday paper.

"No don't tell me. A while ago you were so insistent on grabbing the crossword and I didn't even have time to look at the one from last week. I can do this one by myself, I just started!"

He put down the paper and took off his glasses. He bent his neck so that his head rested on the firm back of the old furniture and rubbed his eyes, he hadn't gotten any sleep last night. "I need a break anyway. I'll just do one and then I'll leave you to it. Promise."

She shifted her weight so she was sitting fully on his lap, and he could see what she was working on. "Down. Number 2.. Ten letters. A defining moment or an Intersection."

He paused, thought for a moment. "Crossroad."

"That's nine."

"Crossroads."

She wrote the letters in with a pencil first and then sighed, replacing it with the finality of the pink ink. "Touche."

He laughed and circled his hands around her waist. "Crossroads. Reminds me of the old high school."

"The one Amara and Michelle used to go to…I never liked that place." She shuddered thinking of all the horrible monsters they had fought there.

"The city want to build a shopping center over it, I guess its better than the old empty lot-

"Are we at one?" She slipped forward and turned over her shoulder so she could see his face.

"We're sitting in my couch on a quiet Saturday afternoon. I would hardly call that a crossroad."

"But…" She started drawing tiny circles around the paper with her pen. "I think your going to be going back to school really soon. The pictures of us are all gone, and you're wearing the same shirt as you did two days ago. Summer will be over soon and somehow it still feels like yesterday that we said goodbye to the Starlights. It feels like something to me. It could be a crossroad."

"Maybe."

"So maybe we should talk about it?"

She waited for a response but could only hear his level breathing. "Or not. I should bring some tea. Its getting really stuffy in here. I know we bought some lemonade or something that's probably just wasting away in the fridge right? I should go get some."

She stood to get up but he grabbed her arm and turned her toward him.

"Your right."

She melted into him and he cradled her in his lap. The paper long forgotten on the little work desk.

"I am?"

"I got an email from the academic board overseeing international students. I need to come back a little early and tie up some loose ends from last semester."

He could feel her body still as she gazed out. He sat there for a while not knowing whether to hug her or let her mull over the information she had just heard.

"When?"

"Usa, you know I love you so don't get mad and not hear me out. I need to tell you something, I want-"

"Mamo- chan..When?"

"In four days."

She took a deep breath and picked up the crossword puzzle again. "Oh."

"I wanted to tell you but I didn't want it to be like last time when you got so sad, if it happened like that again I wouldn't be able to leave you here. I can't stand seeing you like that. Usa I realized I can't be apart from you-."

"Are you still going?"

"Yes."

"Stop." She continued writing on the paper, her face completely blank.

"Usa. Don't be like this. Talk to me."

"When were you going to tell me?"

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Last month. Last week. Yesterday. Soon. Maybe today. Or tomorrow. But I meant to tell you."

She got up with balled fists and her bangs covering her face. "I just wish. I wish you knew that I could've handled it. I defeated Chaos for Christ's sake! I dealt with you dying, just knowing you'd be alive even if you won't be with me because I love you and I would never keep you from going. And now I'm yelling! And now you're leaving and I feel like the bad guy here for being mad!"

He stood and wrapped his arms around her. "No ones the bad guy here."

She pushed him away. "You are. We don't keep stuff from each other. What you were doing is lying out of omission. Across! 9 Letters! O-M-I-S-S-I-O-N. If we weren't at a crossroad then we certainly are now. Call me when you want to be honest."

She turned and walked out of the apartment leaving him alone in the empty living room.

He picked up her sparkly pink pen and the Crossword Puzzle she had left on the floor.

She had gotten half of the answers filled but the rest of the blocks she had just scribbled: N-O, N-O, N-O, over and over again, filling up all of the empty blocks and extending past the page.

She came over ever Saturday to do the crossword. It was a little tradition of theirs. He had always enjoyed watching her eyebrows knit and her chew on her bottom lip as she worked.

He had tried so hard to avoid this.

He crumpled up the newspaper and then opened it again and tried to smooth it out but it was still creased.

Down 32: I can't live without you. Usa will you marry me?

The three letters allotted were crammed with the same letters.

N-O-N-O-N-O


	5. Rainy Day Man

The rain was like a hushed roar on weak roof of the Cherry Hill Temple. The girls had just had another meeting, and it had been useless.

Malachite was getting stronger every time they saw him, the Negaforce still had Tuxedo Mask's body, and they had no plans on how to fix either problem. The silver crystal was their only bargaining chip and even then they couldn't give it up no matter how badly Serena wanted Tuxedo Mask back.

Raye had decided it would just be better to go home and reconvene next week, it was getting dark and it was going to rain soon.

Serena left a little later than the rest, she felt like walking alone. She looked down at the crystal locket pinned to the bow of her school uniform, the little jewel was really the source of this entire problem. She pulled it off her chest, "…The reason why Tuxedo Mask is in danger…"

She couldn't helped but feel disgusted by it, if it never existed none of the monsters would have come to Earth, they could have all just been regular teenagers again.

She gazed at the crystal as she walked her foot tripped on an uneven sidewalk block. She came down hard on her hands and the compact flew underneath a parked car.

"Damn it."

She propped herself up on her bruised palms into a plant position and scanned under the ground for her missing treasure. When she saw nothing she looked up and felt a fat rain drop fall on her face.

"Great, just great."

The fall had caused her buns to fall out place, and gave her a new set of stinging scratches on her palms and knees. She quickly let down her hair and pulled her hair back with one of the hair ties from her buns.

She peered down again seeing a glint under a car a little farther down. More rain drops fell as she hugged her gray jacket, closer to her chest; it was getting cold.

She remained on all fours and was about to crawl over to the next car when she heard a high pitched scream.

Not even worrying about the crystal she was already sprinting toward the noise in the direction of the park around the corner.

Children lay face down in the wet sand as their energy was being sucked away from them into the tall Negaforce Commander's hands. He was walking toward a young woman, as she pitifully tried to crawl backwards away from him as he sucked up her energy.

He smiled down at her, almost sweetly, "Don't try to fight me, relax, it won't be much longer now."

Without thinking Serena cried out, "Stop right there, how dare you harm these innocent kids, in the name of-", She paused, she was still in civilian clothes, her only means of transformation was somewhere up the street, she glanced at a sign near the entrance, "In the name of the neighborhood watch I will punish you!"

Malachite paid no attention to her and continued sucking the energy of the girl in front of him who had suddenly stopped moving and passed out.

"Stop!" Serena rushed forward and tackled him, sending them both sprawling to the ground.

The rain was falling harder now and Serena could feel the water of her thin jacket soaking into her skin. She had never been so close to the soldier. He was, to put it mildy, handsome.

His cape was a darker shade of greenish silver from the rain but it only seemed to further outline his beauty.

His skin was a dark tan like warm caramel and his hair was the whitest silver with a teal undertone, but his eyes…They were a steels blue gray that seemed be looking right through her.

"I said stop." But the last word was barely more than a puff of air.

He wouldn't stop looking at her. The rain had plastered her bangs on her forehead and curled up her hair in its loose low ponytail, turning the bright blonde to its darker, deeper tones.

There eyes met, and her gray jacket, looked almost like the military suit that his fellow comrades wore, and with the forest green shirt peeking out underneath...It almost seemed as if-but it couldn't be…

She was completely on top of him but he had propped himself up on his elbows. With one hand he brushed away her bangs, then his hands moved from her temple to her neck to the back of her head where he brought her head down so his lips to meet his.

Her lips were so soft, and small. She kissed him back softly and not with the same fire that Zoicite had, not with the same hunger, it was different, but as he used his tongue to explore her mouth he realized, it wasn't all bad.

His lips were smooth, and he moved his tongue expertly, his entire body hummed with the spark of fresh energy that electrified the air around them. Her forearms framed his head on the ground, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, so that he sat up to make them both more comfortable.

A moan entered his ears, but it wasn't his and for a second he pressed her body against his when he realized it wasn't hers either.

In the midst of the "encounter" with this mysterious woman he had forgotten to finish the job he had been assigned.

The young woman who had almost passed out was using her upper body to try to crawl out of the park.

Serena suddenly stood up, unsure whether to run away or to try to fight Malachite, she had stopped him after all, and she felt so dizzy from all the energy floating in the air she didn't know if she could do either.

"Stop right there in the name of Mars evil Negaslime unhand that-Seren-civilian!"

Serena turned around and saw her hot-tempered friend gawking at her, how much had she seen? If she was here the other scouts couldn't be much farther behind.

She backed away from Malachite in the neutral direction of the swings. Malachite looked at her, and then and at the Sailor Scout.

"You think only one of you could handle me?"

He started gather dark energy in his hand when more footsteps approached, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus came to stand on either side of the fire scout.

He smirked, "I got what I came for," He flashed over to Serena and stroked a wet tendril of her hair, "I'll be sure to see you again."

"See you soon, Sailor Scouts, count yourself lucky."

The scouts rushed over her, quickly untransforming. Mercury already had her minicomputer out, "Were you hurt?"

"Did he touch you?"

"You look dizzy?"

"What did he whisper to you?"

"Why aren't you transformed!?"

Serena sat down on the swing, leaning on the on the chain the kept the toy suspended, "It's raining, I lost my locket," She got up slowly and walked through the wall the girls had formed around her, "Malachite."

**Another one done! Any pairings or suggestions? Really, any? Because I might just start repeating them, if that's ok with you guys. Well see you guys next time Happy Holidays! **


	6. Seeing Red

She didn't know why she called it a sweater if there were so many holes in it. In retrospect, it had been morning when she slipped it on, and she had only meant to run out to the store for a candy bar she'd been craving.

On the way there she had cut through the park and past by it. Now everyone had left and the sky was a haze of oranges and light purples. The edge of the park and the woods was usually pretty empty, but ever since then the emptiness felt full as if waiting for something to burst it.

The old wooden bench was so week no one sat on it but it had been left alone for posterity. Now it rested with ribbons intertwined into every aching orifice and was protected by a border of photos and deformed candles.

The early morning rain had left the grass a little wet, and the sidewalk cold but she sat and stared and didn't mind.

It had been four months, two weeks, and three days since the last youma attack. They thought they were in the clear, they thought they were _almost_ safe, she told them to _stop_ worrying.

They all went to the hot springs for a little vacation before school started up again and had come back to the news reporters all over the park, a web of caution tape, and that full emptiness.

It had been two and a half weeks since they came back. A youma had ripped a woman and her four year old child to shreds, and then a man in his car, and then two teens walking home from school before they got to it.

Its eyes were just dull silver with two blades as hands and molded rusted iron over its breast. She couldn't for the life of her remember the name it chanted, probably something obvious and cheesy, but this youma wasn't tackling and hurling things at them, trapping them with pastries, freezing them, or even draining them of their energy, it was so much worse.

It tore at the flesh after she was done, chunks of it, a human being reduced to red shredded meat . At the thought of it her stomach caved and bile rose in her throat.

She sat cross-legged half on the sidewalk half on the damp grass staring at the candles for the people she'd let die, happy faces staring at her from thick glass encased in darkened frames.

_"We'll get them back for this." _

_"The past is always growing and we cannot change it, but as we live in the present we can and will change the future. We'll never let this occur again." _

And with eyes down cast and shoulders hunched she said she would stop this from happening again. She promised she would. But what if couldn't? What if it happened again?

There was so much blood on the streets. The blanket the police placed over the two girls after they killed the youma, it as if they tossed a cheap napkin into a sink. The sheet just soaked up all the blood and stuck to the thicker parts of the remains, utterly useless.

And the sound the father made when the man pointed to the heap and tried to tell him that was left, barely enough to bury…

She turned to look at the frame with the two girl, Mika Yurimoto and Nana Fushimano, two bright girls, brighter than she was, and in their senior years at Juuban High, she didn't know them, but she recognized them from the hallways. They looked nothing like themselves when she saw them last.

The wind blew and instead of the flames being snuffed out they stood still and then grew as if stretching upward. Usagi turned and ran to wooded area behind the bench.

She crouched behind a tree and her fingers subconsciously felt for her transformation pen; something didn't feel right.

No more than a few moments later he appeared. She could only see his worn boots and the army pants.

She saw a foot kick the photo over and the crunch of the glass under his foot. "Birdy…always late. "

The voice was deep and cruel, she knew it well.

"Rubeus."

The foot turned toward her direction, as if seeing her behind the trees. She couldn't take him on on her own and she had left her communicator at home, she was lucky she even thought to take her transformation wand.

If he found her not transformed he might let her go, but if he didn't, or if he saw the wand…He still hadn't moved, she sighed a little and small twig under her foot snapped.

"Fuck."

"Moon Prism Power!"

After the series of bright light, and feather she stood clad in her Sailor Uniform, trying not to ground herself and not let her knees knock together. Maybe, Rei would sense her transform, she needed the others, and without them she felt powerless.

"A little Sailor Scout?"

She was standing and could clearly see the impromptu shrine but he was no longer there.

"Come out, if it's just me there's no reason…No reason for you to be the coward."

There was a paused and it seemed as if all of a sudden night fell, and all she could here was her breathing becoming more and more labored.

"Tell me Sailor Moon, are you afraid of the dark, because if you are, I can sure brighten things up." The candles from the shrine grew and swallowed the bench. The ribbons danced as the fires whipped up them. The glass screeched as the frames cracked open and the paper burned.

"Mika! Nana!" She leaped to try to stop it but a circle of fire surrounded her. "Tut tut tut, not so fast." He appeared before her and in one fell swoop grabbed both her hands and pinned them to the tree behind her.

"Should I make this quick the rest of the little twits come?"

He leaned in close so she could feel his hot breath on the side of her face. "But on the other hand, I've been waiting for this moment so long that against my better nature I want to make it oh, so, slow." With each word he brought his chest closer to hers until he was almost leaning on her.

She brought a booted foot to knee him in his groin but he brought his left hand down to stop her. "I always knew underneath all that fluff-" He held her knee, and traced his finger up her thigh, "-You were a little fire cracker."

She shuddered under his touch but looked up at him, "If you want to kill me do it."

The flames roared, "Gladly!"

He grabbed the locket at her chest and ripped it off, reducing the sailor suit to ribbons and then her day clothes, a simple pink sweater and a pleated gray skirt, suddenly much too short.

"I would have so preferred you died in red, but I guess pink is close enough, ne?" He moved his hand up the skirt and felt her wand in her pocket, "I'll take this." She could hear it fall to the ground and closed her eyes so she wouldn't see his gloating red irises staring back at her.

He moved his hand up the outside of her skirt, to her torso, over her right breast, and to her neck. "Any last words before my flame eat you up Moon Princess?"

She blinked rapidly as to not cry. The sweater material was sticking to her skin, her bangs stuck to her forehead and she didn't know if her throat felt dry because of his hand around her neck or because she was fighting not to sob. "Why?"

"Why not?"

"Why did you come here? Why do you want Earth? I'm sure you came from somewhere. You must have your own planet."

"Nemesis is no planet. It is a jail. One that our forefathers were banished to and we cursed with for our entire lives."

"Then why can't you live here with us? Why must you try to kill us, take our energy?"

"There is no coexistence, we tried that. The moon did not want us; they said that the Black Crystal had made us evil, that we were unfit to live with them, that we were lucky to have a home."

He tightened the hold on her neck, "I read the reports, you said you were being _merciful, _and the people of the Moon agreed life would be better for us on Nemesis_._ Nemesis is no home…It is rock, a dying one at that, so it has been reduced to a parasite, and its people creeping things who can only eat what we steal because no one will give us anything. It is a place where parents kill their children so they don't have to live a miserable live eating death flowers and being called evil for trying to survive. A place where it's so cold if you don't make your own fire, and feed it with the hope of revenge, your own planet will drain you of your energy! So tell me more about coexistence."

She looked behind him, the bench was already a pile of ash, there had been so little smoke and in this night sky, no one would see it…no one would come

"But, that was future me, this is the present-the past for you I can change it. I can help you."

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! We don't want help, we want our own, if we live here as equals we would be less so, we would be visitors, and if anything went wrong we would be enemies! Everyone thinks you are so special. I know you Serenity. I know you Sailor Moon, or whatever you call yourself in this pathetic earthly form, Diamond is in love you, Wiseman wants to use you, everyone here thinks you're the savior, but I know you are the enemy, you must be eliminated!"

He dropped his right hand and captured her neck between both of his larger hands. She sunk to her knees and he did with her, his torso towering over hers, her small hands fell on his wrists as he tried to squeeze the life out of her, his eyes burning red, his lips raised in a permanent snarl.

She could barely breathe, but manage to whisper, "I know you too."

He faltered for a second and his hold loosened. "I know you blame me. I know you're angry that some other form of me has ruined your life, either in the past, or future. But I can change that, isn't that why you came to the past in the first place? To change the future? Your people want me, I can change the future! I know now I was wrong, or will be wrong! I don't know but I blame me too!" Hot tears started running down her face and her eyes burned from the sweat running down her forehead. "I blame me too. I'm sorry that it's come to this. That you must kill to feel justified for you cause, that some form of me lead you to it, that this sorry isn't enough! Believe me Rubeus if I could change it, if my death would save your Nemesis, if you truly believe killing me will save all your people…" She squeezed her hands over his, "Then kill me."

His hands slid away and fell on her shoulders. "I hate you."

He put his forehead to hers and she didn't know if he started crying or her tears were her own. "I know."

"No one has seen true death until they've lived on Nemesis. All we asked for is sanctuary then, and you denied us."

The grip on her shoulders tightened. She didn't move.

"We had hopes of re-entering a place where they said there was enough food for everyone, where we could stop hiding, and you denied us. When the news came, people were so hopeful they waiting at the palace gates chanting your name, they were so sure…" His back arched and his voice ached,

"She was so sure, she sang your name in praises, but your mercy killed her spirit, and she…no one wanted to live on that rock anymore."

"What was her name?"

"Aqua, Aquamarine, and she called me Crimson."

"Aq-"

"Don't say her name."

"I'm sorry."

She held his face in her too small hands and kissed his forehead. "I'm sorry."

His voice quickened, and his eyes glazed over, staring at past the trees. "She was just too gentle to live on Nemesis. I never believed, I never even dared, but she was just to kind. She was everything the Moon Queen pretended to be. She was everything you pretend to be now."

He moved his head up so the two were face to face. "She was a better you."

He grabbed a fistful of her head and craned her neck upward and his lips joined hers, fully and deeply. Her mind went hazy as his body melded to hers, the fire dance around and the flames kissed her skin.

She hesitantly placed a hand on his chest, and his muscled chest tensed underneath his brown vest .The next moment she found herself being thrown to the ground. She looked up to see him shuffling backwards out of the circle, unfazed by the flames that dizzied her with their heat.

"What sorcery…."

She touched her bruised lips as her scalp stung. "I didn't mean."

"No! You are not Aqua! You are still the same witch that tricked an entire planet. Your tricks wont work on me. I do not believe you!"

Sirens blared in the distance and seemed to be approaching but Rubeus kept staring. "NO!" The flames reached even greater heights.

"No."

He grabbed his head in his hands and kneeled faced down in the dirt. "Aqua? Aqua!"

The whaling of the sirens was still coming. She could feel the wand under her heel and felt her scout instincts kick in as she grabbed it and ran, wincing as the fire scorches her arms, but she couldn't stay, she couldn't stop.

She almost looked back but she knew what she would see in him, something familiar, cruel, and not meant for her. Love.

**A lot longer than usual. I really didn't mean for it to be but hopefully I painted a nice little picture for you. I always felt so sorry for people on Nemesis. L But I guess Rubeus would tell me "I don't need your pity!", and throw a fireball at me or something but anyhoo here's the next chapter! Leave a comment on who you want to see next in a review. I did read on the wiki his first name is Crimson so yeah, I do research people!**

**Should we go back to the Shittenou? Starlights? Some regular humans from the show? Andrew? Greg? Umino? Oh the options! Ahahah See you next time!**

**Thanks for reviewing!**

**Lucyole: I'll be sure to get more of your pairings in soon! I got rubeus and wiseman in human form would definitely be interesting. **

**LoveintheBattlefield: Always appreciate your dependable reviews **

**SailorMoonAddict: I'm really considereing the Yaten one! Who says Seiya gets all the fun? **

**Pp: Another Rubeus fan! Well glad I could help!**


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